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Back in August, Instagram launched Stories, an interesting new feature where photos and videos were deleted automatically 24 hours after being published. While the launch of this feature was followed by accusations that it was based on a similar one by Snapchat, the feature and its Snapchat twin have turned out to be great success stories over the months. It has in fact been so successful that Instagram Stories now boasts over 100 million daily active users which means that one in every five Instagram users checks Instagram Stories everyday. This figure was revealed by Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom in a recent interview with Buzzfeed.
During the interview, Systrom maintained that even though there have been accusations of Instagram copying ‘Stories’ from Snapchat, what really matters to him is the fact that it works. Not many social media features get to boast of 100 million daily users within a couple of months and Systrom thinks that his team deserves the rich results of all the hard work. “Ephemerality had to be adopted in a way that worked. And a signal that it is working is that after just a few months, over 100 million people, daily, use Instagram Stories. So, forget about pride of authorship, internally or externally — it’s working,” he said. Even before Stories arrived, Instagram already had over 500 million monthly active users, so the scope for Stories to gain even more daily users in the coming months is very bright.
Systrom also spoke about why Instagram decided to move into videos even when its photos-only profile was still quite popular. His basic argument was that why would Instagram force users to limit themselves to photos when they want to post and share videos of themselves and their friends. The decision to add videos to Instagram was made easier by the fact that because of faster networks, higher device storage and better cameras, shooting and uploading videos is now as easy for users as capturing pictures. However, Systrom did concede that Instagram’s video-viewing experience isn’t unique and is very similar to many other Social media platforms. While features like videos and Stories aren’t exactly unique to Instagram, the social media network still needs to be lauded for the fact that it has been able to retain its user base despite stiff competition from heavyweights like Facebook and Snapchat, as well as a large number of smaller photo and video sharing apps.